DCAF - ; Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance ( French: ''Centre pour la gouvernance du secteur de la sécurité, Genève,''

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

: ''Das Genfer Zentrum für die Gouvernanz des Sicherheitssektors'') is an intergovernmental foundation-based

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

that provides research and project support to states and international actors in improving

security sector governance and reform The concepts of security sector governance and reform (SSG/R, or SSG and SSR) generally refer to a process in Western-based international development and democratization to amend the security sector of a state towards good governance and its princi ...

(SSG and SSR). DCAF was established in 2000 as the 'Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces' in the

Canton of Geneva The Canton of Geneva, officially the Republic and Canton of Geneva, is one of the Cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons of the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of forty-five Municipality, municipalities, and the seat of the governme ...

by the Swiss government and as of 2023 employs around 220 staff in 16 offices. The Centre's founding mandate was to assist security institutions to reform themselves in ways that would help stabilize the fragile peace following the 1990s Balkans conflicts and during the democratic transitions of Central and

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

. At the time, ‘democratic control of armed and security forces' was considered a keystone of lasting peace and stability, under the

OSCE The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the pr ...

's 1994

Code of Conduct A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the social norm, norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party or an organization. Companies' codes of conduct A company code of conduct is a set of rules which is comm ...

on politico-military aspects of security. The Centre was renamed 'DCAF – Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance' on 2 May 2019, and took on new branding.

Mandate

DCAF was established in October 2000 under Swiss law as a foundation and on the initiative of the

Swiss government The Federal Council is the federal cabinet of the Swiss Confederation Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west ...

. The organization states that it is a

good governance Good governance is the process of measuring how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources and guarantee the realization of human rights in a manner essentially free of abuse and corruption and with due regard for t ...

-promoting foundation focusing on a specific

public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, pu ...

area—the security sector. DCAF is mandated by its intergovernmental Foundation Council to assist partner states and international actors in improving the governance of the security sector through

reform Reform refers to the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The modern usage of the word emerged in the late 18th century and is believed to have originated from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement, which ...

based on international norms and good practices.

Activities

DCAF states that it provides in‐country advisory support and practical assistance programmes, identifies recommendations and good practices, develops and promotes norms and standards, and conducts tailored policy research. The think tank reports that it collaborates with international organizations, such as the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

, the

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the African Union. The b ...

, the

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the p ...

(OSCE) and the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

(EU). DCAF was ranked the 33rd (out of 65) in the Top Transparency and Good Governance Think Tanks and the 35th (out of 104) in the Top Defense and National Security Think Tanks on the 201
Global Go To Think Tank Index
The foundation is one of only seven institutions worldwide represented in both categories. Likewise, an external evaluation published in 2014 assessed that DCAF "has an excellent reputation as an organization with solid expertise".

Infrastructure, staff and budget

DCAF is headquartered at the Maison de la Paix complex in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

together with its "sister centres", the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), as well as the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) and other

peacebuilding Peacebuilding is an activity that aims to resolve injustice in nonviolent ways and to transform the cultural and structural conditions that generate deadly or destructive conflict. It revolves around developing constructive personal, group, and ...

-related institutions. In January 2018, DCAF became a member of th
Geneva Peacebuilding Platform
(GPP), a "a knowledge hub that connects the critical mass of peacebuilding actors, resources, and expertise in Geneva and worldwide". DCAF also maintains permanent offices in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ) is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the central West Bank, that serves as the administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of abov ...

, Tripoli, and

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

. In 2023, DCAF employed 2023 staff, of whom 60% were women, from 40 different nationalities. Its budget was 34 million

Swiss franc The Swiss franc, or simply the franc, is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is also legal tender in the Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia which is surrounded by Swiss territory. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) iss ...

s. Switzerland provided approximately 66% of the budget and DCAF's top donors in descending order are currently: Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, European Union, Luxembourg, Ireland. All funding to DCAF qualifies as

official development assistance Official development assistance (ODA) is a category used by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to measure foreign aid. The DAC first adopted the concept in 1969. It is w ...

Organization

The Foundation Council is DCAF's supreme decision-making body. As of 2023 it comprises 54 states and the

as well as four governments and two international organizations that hold observer status. DCAF is organized as a think-and-do tank and at the headquarters its work is carried out according to four pillars: * ** Policy & Research Division ** Gender & Security Division ** Business & Security Division * ** Europe & Central Asia Division ** Middle East & North Africa Division ** Sub-Saharan Africa Division ** Asia-Pacific Unit ** Latin America & Caribbean Unit * * ** Financial Resources ** Human Resources ** Administration & Support Services

References

{{Portal bar, Switzerland, Politics, Society Research institutes in Switzerland Research institutes of international relations Maison de la Paix Military education and training National security institutions Peace organisations based in Switzerland Public policy schools Security organizations Security sector governance and reform Foundations based in Switzerland International organisations based in Switzerland Organisations based in Geneva Think tanks established in 2000 2000 establishments in Switzerland Foreign policy and strategy think tanks based in Europe

Mandate

Activities

Infrastructure, staff and budget

Organization

See also

References